LEEDS DIGITAL FESTIVAL
About Leeds Digital Festival
In 2016 Leeds Digital Festival is collaborating with the award-winning Live at Leeds music festival, to create a exciting programme showcasing the hottest musical talent and the latest emerging technologies. The two events will cross over fully on the Friday 29th April, with a major event planned to celebrate the collaboration.
By combining digital themes with Live at Leeds, which attracts over 10,000 people, we’ll bring an engaged audience into Leeds to participate in an event that will crossover between business, digital and music, as seen within successful festivals around the world such as SXSW in Austin, Texas, and OFFF in Barcelona. The overall event will be branded as the Live at Leeds, Music & Digital Festival.
25th April 2016
Festival Launch at Leeds Dock
25th–30th April 2016
Breakfast Bytes
27th April 2016
Digital Marketing / SEO Skill Share
27th April 2016
The Digital Debate
28th April 2016
The Digital Art Debate
28th April 2016
Glug Revelations
28th–30th APRIL 2016
Lumen Prize Exhibition
28th April 2016
Digital Ladder
29th April 2016
Bring Your Own Beamer
29th April 2016
LCOM & Bill Kong Presents: Swimming In
29th April 2016
Sega v Nintendo Classic Games Day
30th April 2016
Bug Club
Key Details
25th–29th April 2016
leedsdigitalfestival.org
@leedsdigifest16
FESTIVAL LAUNCH AT LEEDS DOCK
Festival Launch at Leeds Dock
To celebrate a week of digital celebration at Leeds Dock there is a VIP event to mark the launch of the Leeds Digital Festival. Influential digital players from the city will come together featuring:
Introduction to the Leeds Digital Festival by Stuart Clarke, Leeds Digital Festival Director
Hebe Media / The City Talking’s premiere of ‘Tech in Leeds’ film
Unveiling of award wining Lumen Prize AR installation ‘Man-A’
Guided tours of Lumen Prize Exhibition for VIP attendees
This is a VIP invite only event.
As headline sponsor of the city-wide Leeds Digital Festival, Leeds Dock will celebrate digital culture in all its forms. The programme of engaging events at Leeds Dock as part of the Festival showcases some of the very best in music, art and creative discussion around from 25-30 April 2016. This includes the Lumen Prize exhibition bringing together digital art by artists from across the globe.
Key Details
25th April 2016
18:30
Dock 29, Leeds Dock,
Leeds, LS10 1PZ
BREAKFAST BYTES
Breakfast Bytes
The Breakfast Bytes are a series of morning events created by the city digital community for the digital community and beyond. Pop along to hear insightful talks daily as part of The Leeds Digital Festival 2016.
KEY DETAILS
25th–30th April 2016
8:30–10:30
Dock 29, Leeds Dock, Leeds, LS10 1PZ
THE DIGITAL DEBATE
The Digital Debate
The Digital Debate will feature a panel of specialists discussing themes and trends across the digital spectrum.
Panel speakers include:
Stuart Clarke
Leeds Digital Festival
Paul Lemon
Sky Technology at Leeds Dock
Rob Shaw
Jaywing & Epiphany
Dylan Roberts
Leeds City Council
Adam McNichol
Numiko
Moderated by Laura Harper of Shoosmiths and Future Everything. Organised by Phil Dawson of Leeds Dock and Allied London.
Topic: Can Digital build a Powerhouse?
We’ve been told there is a nascent Northern Powerhouse, but how do the digital industries in Leeds figure in this? Can we be an effective part of it? Do we have the skills, talent, entrepreneurs and businesses to compete and scale? In this debate some of the leading figures on the Leeds scene discuss these topics, with questions and thoughts invited from the audience.
Areas of discussion
How can we be part of this Powerhouse?
What business are in Leeds that work in the digital sector? (Games / Fintech / Advertising / Website Creative Production)
Do we have the aspiration?
What’s holding us back? Are cliques in the industry a problem?
What is the Council’s role in this and what is their strategy?
Start ups & Scale Ups
We have a strong start up scene, but what do we need to scale?
Does government support this? Funding / grants / LEP etc.
Where are the private investors?
Is FinTech where the efforts of Local Government should be concentrated? What about the creative digital industries? They arguably represent the long term employment option.
Those who have the ear of government / LEP are in an elite – how can we open up the opportunities?
Skills & Talent
How can we attract the best talent? We need people now!
How can we create the best talent? Connections to Universities etc.
There is a lot of diversity in the types of businesses, but we are all looking for (broadly) the same skills – how can we positively compete?
How do the smaller companies compete with the big ones?
Infrastructure
How can we get to clients? Travel etc.
Will the cross Pennine route from Manchester to Leeds actually make a difference?
Access to grants / funding from Government
Incubation spaces – are they working?
Office space – do we have good, cool, affordable space?
Please make sure you register to guarantee entry to this event as there are a limited number of tickets available.
Key Details
27th April 2016
18:30
1 hour long with 30 mins questions from the audience
Dock 29, Leeds Dock, Leeds, LS10 1PZ
THE DIGITAL ART DEBATE
The Digital Art Debate
The Digital Art Debate will feature a panel of specialists covering themes, trends, revolutions in digital art.
Panel speakers confirmed:
Serena Wallace-Turner
Lumen Prize Project Director
Forteini Aravani
Digital Curator of the Museum of London
Tessa Jackson, OBE
Lumen Prize Jury Panel member, curator, arts consultant.
Jon Wakeman
Director of East Street Arts
Ben Eaton
Lead creative of Invisible Flock, Leeds Based digital artist collective.
Part of The Lumen Prize Exhibition, “The World’s Pre-eminent Digital Art Prize” — The Guardian Culture Blog.
Key details
28th April 2016
18:30
Upper Floor Lumen Gallery, Leeds Dock, Leeds, LS10 1PZ
GLUG REVELATIONS
Glug Revelations
Glug Leeds is an informal meet up celebrating the wonderful creative talents in the North where local Creatives can meet, inspire and collaborate.
Glug Leeds #5 will showcase the new and interesting trends in the creative industry.
Speakers on the night include:
Social Chain
Social Chain is the UK’s largest Influencer Marketing agency and one of the most talked about marketing agencies of 2015. At just 23years old, Steve Bartlett heads up a team of more than fifty young creatives growing huge social trends, recognised as one of the most powerful influencers on Social Media.
Steve Barlett takes popular online communities & influencers and builds creative marketing campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world. As a result, he has turned Social Chain into a multi-million pound business that has been recognised by The Drum as Social Media Agency of the Year.
Website
socialchain.com
Twitter
@_SteveBartlett
ODI Leeds
Paul Connell the founder of ODI Leeds will be joining us to talk about the ODI, a ‘Pioneer Node’ of the Open Data Institute founded by Sir Tim Berners Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt to equip, connect and inspire people around the world to innovate with data.
Website
leeds.theodi.org
Twitter
@LeedsODI
M14 Industries (Bristlr App)
Meet the guys behind Bristlr App – winner of the UK’s best new dating site 2016. Part social network, part dating service, Bristlr has become the world’s favourite beard-centric social app. Dubbed as the ‘Tinder for Beards’ by CNBC for its 120,000 users.
Started as something of a joke in October 2014, Bristlr has now created more than half of a million connections between those with beards and those who want to stroke them. The app has grown into a fully fledged and feature rich dating service used in more than 100 cities around the world.
M14 Industries manage and power niche dating and social apps, allowing anyone to easily create their own service without fuss.
Website
m14.industries
Twitter
@M14Industries
Christopher Murphy
Christopher Murphy is a writer, designer and speaker based in Belfast. A passionate educator, and a mentor to many young entrepreneurs, Murphy leads Interaction Design provision at The Belfast School of Art, where he has championed a successful entrepreneurship culture for many years.
Website
tinybooks.org
Twitter
@fehlr
Stac
Stac is a consultancy based in central Leeds focusing on application architecture, developer workshops, performance and security. With clients such as the NHS and Sky, they’re well versed in building and scaling large web applications for any industry.
Josh Nesbitt Stac’s Director is a Ruby programmer with many years’ experience, Josh also runs the Hey! (https://heyst.ac) events, taking place roughly eight times a year, attracting digital professionals from all over Leeds and the surrounding areas.
Website
wearestac.com
Twitter
@wearestac
Intermarketing
Award winning creative agency based in Leeds, London, Amsterdam & Sydney. Proud to be one of The Drum’s best independent agencies & RAR Grand Prix winners.
Website
intermarketing.com
Twitter
@Intermarketing
About Glug
Glug is a series of events for the design and creative community. Our showcase event is held in London but there are now many other events around the world.
Based around a series of talks and informal networking, Glug has become one of the most exciting, credible and well attended creative events around.
Established in 2007, it’s an eclectic mix of people from all creative walks of life; from advertising, graphic design and the visual arts through to fashion, architecture and the crafts.
It’s a fine melting pot indeed, regularly attended by creatives, students, clients, cultural voyeurs, hipsters and the industry elite. Come! Be intoxicated and inspired, you’re also bound to make some new contacts, friends and maybe even find that next job/contract/lover.
Key Details
28th April 2016
18:30
Ticket Price £7.50
Dock 29, Leeds Dock, Leeds, LS10 1PZ
THE LUMEN PRIZE EXHIBITION
Lumen Prize Exhibition
The Lumen Prize Exhibition celebrates the very best art created digitally by artists globally. Its goal is to focus the world’s attention on this exciting genre through an annual competition and global tour of works selected by an international panel of judges.
Working closely with the Lumen Prize we have curated a collection of 7 award winning pieces that blur the lines of art, interaction, music and technology.
The world’s pre-eminent digital art prize
The guardian culture blog
Portée
2015 Welsh National Opera Performance Prize
The hugely impressive centre piece of the Lumen Prize exhibition is a multi-sensory project at the crossing of light, architecture and music that poses the question: what if architecture could be expressed through music?
Luminous wires stretching down from towering concrete pillars, mysteriously linked to a solitary grand piano can be played like a giant harp creating an immersive layered soundscape as audience members interact with the piece.
Portee will be hosted in Union.
Metamorphy
2015 Lumen Silver Winner. A deeply immersive sensory exploration of sound and light.
A semi-transparent veil has an elasticity which, when stretched and played with by the participant, offers sensory interactions that explore depths of various universes, through organic, liquid or incandescent substances.
The interactions of the participants with the veil alter the matter of the universes and generate three dimensional soundscapes.
Passages
2013 silver winner.
An interactive piece that scans movement and translates that into a multitude of representative interpretations.
A New Jerusalem
2015 silver winner.
An immersive virtual reality installation that seeks to embody the spirit of this prophesised city.
Moc
A highly engaging & reactive soundscape created through the interpretation of sound, Moc explores the relationship between sound and image through simple interactions. An imaginary landscape passes before the viewer. Whistling into a microphone, a tree grows: its shape will evolve in real time based on the sound produced.
The Garden Of Earthly Delights
2014 lumen exhibition work
Interactive piece that places the viewer in a hieronymous bosch-esque landscape.
Electric Sheep
First created in 1999 by Scott Draves, the Electric Sheep is a form of artificial life, which is to say it is software that recreates the biological phenomena of evolution and reproduction though mathematics. The system is made up of man and machine, a cyborg mind with 450,000 participant computers and people all over the Internet.
Man A
2015 Prize Winner
An augmented reality experience that sees life and movement burst from a flat surface of distorted patterns.
Man-A will feature as a floor to ceiling print in Dock 29 and will be revealed at the Leeds Digital Festival launch event on Monday 25th. With numerous ‘markers’ available, each releasing unique experiences, we will be bringing Leeds to life with a city wide poster campaign.
The Lumen Showreels
We will be releasing a new Lumen Prize showreel each day throughout the festival at various locations throughout the city including the screen in Millenium Square.
The Lumen Bug Club
Sky are sponsoring and hosting the Bug Club Creative Coding Workshops for 7-12 year olds on Saturday 30th. In addition Sky will be holding a workshop themselves, featuring content from the Sky Kids channel.
Key Details
Thursday 28 April
17:00–23:00
Friday 29 April
17:00–23:00
Saturday 30 April
10:00–18:00
The Lumen Building, Leeds Dock, Leeds, LS10 1PZ
DIGITAL LADDER
Digital Ladder
An event for students and graduates showcasing the fantastic career and grad scheme opportunities available in Leeds. Current companies participating: Sky Technology at Leeds Dock & Epiphany Search.
Bring Your Own Beamer
Bring Your Own Beamer
The event is the brainchild of media artist Rafaël Rozendaal who organized the very first BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer) in Berlin in 2010.
The concept became popular worldwide and is now organized in cities like New York, Seoul, Athens, Melbourne and Paris.
B.Y.O.B will be hitting Leeds for the first time as part of a programme of curated events at Leeds Dock. Taking place in the industrial splendour of Block E, with towering concrete pillars and bare surfaces, on Friday 29th April marking the transistion from the Leeds Digital Festival to the Live At Leeds Music & Digital festival.
Award winning Lumen Prize artists Genetic Moo will be taking part and also selecting their favourite works on the night.
An accompanying soundtrack will be supplied by Released Records. Tony Green will be behind the decks and Dawkins & Wulls will be playing live.
This event will mix the city’s creative community, musicians, music lovers and seekers of engaging and immersive experiences.
Key Details
29th April 2016
18:30
Block E, Leeds Dock, Leeds, LS10 1PZ
LCOM & BILL KONG PRESENTS: SWIMMING IN
Leeds College Of Music And Bill Kong Presents: Swimming In
An immersive showcase of live Electronica and Visual art from:
Dulahli & Tomwynne
Will be premiering their exclusive collaborative set with the two releasing a LP together later in the year. Both members of the ‘8MANA Collective’ who are are spearheading the futures beats movement and quickly making Leeds notorious on the Electronic circuit. With influences spawning from James Blake and Madlib to Flying Lotus and Floating Points with a hefty amount of jazz and soul flavour.
Dulahli
Tomwynne
Klone
Hailing from Leeds, KLONE has released his music on Badimup, Chord Marauders as well as his own label Wisdom Teeth which he runs with fellow producer Facta. Having just had it’s fourth vinyl release, the labels roster now includes Hodge, Wen, Alex Coulton and more, bringing together elements and grooves from Techno, Grime & Garage. KLone made his debut on Brooklyn NY infamous Reconstrvct night in January of this year and has had mixes on Radar Radio and Rinse FM.
Hedge Maze
Young producer out of Leeds. Selfaware algorithm ‘Hedge Maze’ invites you on a search for the answers within. Having released his debut EP on Lobster Theremin Hedge Maze brings a very special hardware live set of tightly crafted, hazy, blissedout house and techno.
Oscar Barony
Oscar Barany is a 21 year old animator from London studying at leeds college of art. His work aims to combine music with the playfulness of animation. Usinga range of digital animation techniques to inform his ideas. Oscar has been working as a VJ/visual artist for the past year with clients ranging from dj’s to jazz bands in a wide selection of venues across the UK. Using audioreactive technology his work makes music and visual one succinct performance.
Amelia Eve
Amelia Grace Eve is an artist/film maker from Leicestershire. Currently based in Leeds studying a BA (hons) in Visual Communication at the Leeds College of Art.
Her work revolves around socially engaged issues. She uses analogue and digital lens based media to communicate, expressing issues which she is passionate about within an innovative and playful aesthetic.
Bill Kong
Bill Kong ( Jim Hatch ) Australian born music producer. Currently undertaking a Masters at LCoM working within event production and artist development. Since moving to leeds he became cofounder and producer of the band Kalyan. Spawned from the band he formed the
events label Kalyan Presents which promotes the cities up and coming talent in music and art.
Key Details
29th April 2016
18:00–23:00
Lumen Building (Top Floor), Leeds Dock, Leeds, LS10 1PZ
Sega v Nintendo Classic Games Day
Sega v Nintendo Classic Games Day
Remember the playground battles on who had the best system? Were you a Nintendo or Sega kid? Now you can relive those days with a one day set up at Dock 29 bar at Leeds Dock.
We will have the main Sega and Nintendo consoles from each era side by side for comparison to play all day. There will also be chance to debate which side you were on, play those classic games, relive that childhood and maybe find a new found love for the other brand.
There will also be a Street Fighter 2 competition in the evening too — snes version of course.
Free admission all day and night so see you there!
Bug Club
Bug Club — Creative Coding Workshop For Children
To celebrate The Leeds Digital Festival 2016 at Leeds Dock there will be 4 x one hour Bug Club creative coding workshop sessions for 7-12 year olds.
The sessions will take place at the impressive new Sky 2 building which is at Leeds Dock. Getting to Leeds Dock is easy by car, bike, or you can even use our free water taxi which is in service 10am – 6pm at weekends (7am – 7pm weekdays). The free water taxi picks up by the south entrance of Leeds train station and drops off in the heart of Leeds Dock.
The title of the workshop is ‘Beginning to code in Processing’.
Processing is one of the best languages for beginners. It is one step up from Scratch which many kids may have encountered at school already. Processing lets you get your hands on the code itself – changing the variables and setting up loops, functions and other control structures.
In this lesson, children will learn how to write code to:
• draw graphical objects
• move them around the screen
• add dynamic text and colours
• create simple interactions
The artists will add their own creepy crawly flavour to the workshops with twitching beetles, flapping butterflies and wriggling worms. The results will be emailed to each participant.
Please register by choosing a time slot you’d like your child to be included on through the Eventbrite registration page.
Key Details
30th April 2016
Various slots through the day
Sky 2, Leeds Dock, Leeds, LS10 1PZ